Pasco high school student: I'm sorry I didn't proofread

The Pasco high school junior who wrote the letter featured on tbt*'s front page and in
The Gradebook last Thursday has sent a followup to his letter. The student says he was enraged when he submitted the letter (about a story on Obama's plan to lengthen the school year) and didn't think about grammatical or spelling errors.

In more than 100 e-mail responses and comments on the The Gradebook, readers said they were appalled at the quality of the student's writing/grammar in the letter -- or they thought it was a joke.

Read the Pasco high school junior's response, then share your views below.

Good day Florida, this is just a follow up to a segment I wrote earlier. Well, when I read most of your responses, I was distraught. I had created that article simply to complain about a lack of student input on a subject mainly concerning students (which I still think is a valid point). Instead of trying to understand and take an interest in why I was writing, this is what I get, a smear campaign against my good name and the name of my whole county.

At first, I was enraged. I had never expected in a million years that it would be published, so I quickly clicked send without a second thought. I hadn’t thought about grammar errors or whether or not I had accidentally typed a wrong key at some point (however I did use spell check which is not always a reliable tool). Within two days of writing it I grew to hate that mistake.

At first, there was excitement, I had actually made an article that was published. But then I found grammar errors, spelling errors, words that weren’t even close to how I originally misspelled them, and to top it all off I had accidentally hit the “H” key while typing Obama.

So I prayed that the people who would read this would understand that I was in a rush and didn’t have time to correct it, but of course has society ever been that kind?

What I found in the responses were relatively hate mail, what’s worst, then my teachers started criticizing it. The instant I heard one of my teachers insult it, I began to plot my rebuttal. They started out simple, but most of them were mean and sarcastic, some of them were condescending, and one even went for sympathy. I thought about it all day and decided the best road to take was to apologize.

So I apologize. I’m sorry that I didn’t proofread my segment. I’m sorry I didn’t put in enough periods. I’m sorry that I may have said some things that may have upset you, I’m sorry that my good intentions turned out so badly, and I’m sorry if you feel insulted or cheated like this was some practical joke.

This was not a joke. It was just poorly planned and most of all, I’m sorry I gave you something to use against me, for even though you don’t know me, I know what you’re saying about my article and it turns my stomach.

Name withheld

tbt* editor’s note: The student’s original letter was printed exactly as it arrived in our inbox, as is this one. No additions or embellishments were made.